Green Split Pea Soup

May 18, 2012

Quick, summer is coming soon! It’s still cool enough to eat soup without melting into a puddle of sweat, and just enough for a nice serving of Green Split Pea Soup.

It’s barely May and round here the heat gives us little respite these days. Luckily it has been raining heavily for the last two days, which brings the heat and humidity down a few notches to more bearable levels.

I know what doctors recommend (they won’t shut up about it): Breakfast like kings, dinner like paupers. Unfortunately for a night owl such as yours truly, forced by society to a life in which sleeping is reserved for the nights, my appetite and energy peak at night. But just as I have to make myself go to bed at night, I also have to trick my belly into to avoiding a feast right before bed.

Enter this soup.

This delicious Green Split Pea Soup is perfect for cool nights:

It is quite light, but filling; on top of that it is very easy and quick to prepare, and if you have a pressure cooker it won’t take more than 15 minutes to serving time. If you have a slow cooker, and the time, even better, as the flavors are better released using this method. Both methods are perfect for the working parent in charge of feeding the family.

While split peas are not very common on the Dominican table, we can always find it in the supermarket and I always have some at home for these occasions. You can prepare this as a vegan or a meat-lovers’ dish – both options are included.

But returning to my night owl inclinations, did you know that several studies suggest that, should we engage in our preferred awake-sleeping cycle, night owls are at higher risk of several nutrition-related diseases?

Yikes! I guess I will keep going to bed early, and not just because I have to take my daughter to school.